Aiyyaa, set in south India, revolves around Meenaxi, a middle-class Indian girl torn between fantasy and reality. When Meenaxi finds her Prince Charming, a rumored drug addict, she isn’t attracted to him for his looks or intellect but for his lingering scent.

The romantic comedy, which marks the Bollywood debut of Marathi filmmaker Sachin Khudalkar, was widely touted to be Rani Mukherjee’s comeback movie.

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Several critics were highly impressed with Ms. Mukherjee’s portrayal of Meenaxi but a few others voiced skepticism about the film’s screenplay.

The critic praised Mr. Kundalkar for exploring the notion of female fantasy in “Aiyyaa,” a theme largely uncultivated in Bollywood, she noted. Mr. Kundalkar weaves the film to “dramatic perfection,” achieving a “fine balance” between “absurdity” and “imagination,” Ms. Sharma said.

The reviewer went on to commend the star cast for their performances, particularly Ms. Mukherjee for her flawless portrayal of Meenaxi.

“Meenaxi is high-pitched, a ball of nervous emotion and rage, and Mukerji has dived right into her world. It never feels like she has caught the wrong note; she makes Meenaxi not only believable, but extremely likeable,” the critic noted.

But not all of it worked for the critic. “Aiyyaa takes time to warm up, slips into dull patches at times and occasionally teeters on the edge of a certain dissonance,” Mr. Chatterjee noted, adding that the film’s narrative was “loud” and “outré.”

These shortcomings, however, were offset by the film’s cinematography, which used “the power of colour, sound and, of course, smell to evoke human emotions.” The reviewer was also highly impressed with Ms. Mukherjee, who in his view, “plunges headlong into the character without the slightest hint of inhibition.”

Mr. Chatterjee’s review gave the film three stars out of five.

Not everyone was on the same page.

A Zee Newsreview by Resham Sengar slammed the film for its “nonsensical fairy tale” narrative. The reviewer took a tough stance against director Mr. Kundalkar, criticizing him for “spoiling the film (and thereby torturing us – the audience) in his attempt to pull off a supposedly off-beat film.”

Mr. Sengar disagreed with most critics, claiming Meenaxi’s character was “totally unidentifiable with a typical middle class Indian girl.”

“Her melodramatic ways make you laugh only for a while but you soon start getting tired of it. Rani has given several remarkable performances in her past films but sadly ‘Aiyyaa’ fails to make the right use of her acting talent,” the critic noted.

The performances of the star cast, which were the highlight for many, did little to impress Mr. Sengar. He dubbed Ms. Mukherjee’s role “overused” and Prithviraj Sukumaran, the male lead’s role, as “underused.”

“In straight words, ‘Aiyyaa’ is not a script badly handled rather it is a script wrongly written,” Mr. Sengar concluded, giving the film one star out of five.

She thought the first half was “captivating,” but the second half “forced” and “intolerable.”

The film’s actors didn’t impress, either. Other than Ms. Mukherjee, who in the critic’s view did a “good job,” the others went “over the top” trying to portray their roles.

The rom-com’s score and cinematography were the only aspects worthy of praise, she noted. “The director had the potential of producing something way better with the kind of team he had at his disposal, however, he fails to do so,” Ms. Sikka wrote.

But Ms. Sikka ended her review on a positive note. “Though the film is limited by cheesy dialogues and prosaism, it proves to be an entertainer and a definite treat for every Rani Mukerji fan,” she said, giving the film two-and-a-half stars on five.

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